Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Bringing Up Bébé, aka Learn From the French


I am certainly not having kids anytime soon, but I still enjoyed this book. An American woman who lives in Paris with her husband becomes pregnant and takes the reader step-by-step through being pregnant in France, daycare, how to make friends with your child's friend's parents, and everything in between. The French way of raising children is thoroughly explained and quite frankly I'm siding with the Europeans on this one. 

Maybe I'm biased because I adore France already (since I was a French major in college and studied abroad in Rennes for a semester).  Honestly, the ideas that the French have towards children are really so much simpler than the American way. 
For instance, Pamela Druckerman discusses how French babies will sleep through the night at three months! How can that possibly be? The French parents simply don't get up every single time the baby cries. During the first few months, yes, but after two and a half months or so, they let their baby cry for five to ten minutes before picking him/her up. It's the same during the day - give them a few minutes so they can learn to self-soothe. 

Give this one a try - it's fascinating. 

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